Tossing and turning, whimpering a little in his sleep, Heinz Doofenshmirtz was having a nightmare. Again. It had been happening so much lately, and the dark circles under his eyes were only becoming more prominent with each night's sleep he lost. The dreams weren't always the same, but they always had the same origin. Every nightmarish scene that appeared behind his eyelids in the night all derived from his childhood days.

And his childhood days were anything but good. He had had emotionally abusive parents who constantly made it very clear they were not the least bit proud of him. His struggle all through his younger years was trying to simply fit in his own family, only to get pushed out of the family dynamic completely. They made him feel so worthless, like he would never be good enough.

His father would never be anything more than ashamed of him, his mother would never love him…but Roger—Roger always had gotten everything. He was always one step ahead of Heinz. Even now, he was the mayor of Danville. He…was ruling something! Heinz wanted to rule the Tri State Area, and here his brother was the mayor of the city. It wasn't fair! Roger got this, Roger got that, everybody loves Roger, why not give Roger the key to the city, too?

It seems nothing could ever go right for him, ever. He felt like the biggest failure in the world, and it all started with his childhood. No—it started the day he was born.

It was no wonder the man was having nightmares.

"I don't have all day, Heinz," his father was saying impatiently, looking at a pocket watch. "You wanted to show me something, yeah? Something 'astounding', as you call it? Well, show me. Make me proud, Heinz."

"Y-yes! It, it's right over here, Papa! Come see! Come see!" Heinz hurried over to his latest –inator to show his father. This was it; the moment of truth. He could finally show his father what he was capable of, that he was worth something. He grinned a little evilly as he pressed the button, only to be confused when nothing happened. "What…What's going on?!"

His father pursed his lips. "Clearly, you don't know what you're doing, Heinz."

"No…no, I swear…this worked earlier! It, it was very impressive!" He kept hitting the button in frustration before getting a good look at his –inator, seeing it had been tampered with. Wires were cut, parts were unscrewed! "Perry the Platypus?!"

"What about a platypus? Have you gone nutty? There is no one here."

"No…this, this secret agent platypus always comes and ruins my plans. He, he had to be behind this, I just know it!" He got on his hands and knees, crawling around the –inator looking for the platypus. "Come out, come out, wherever you are! Perry the Platypus! Ugh!"

"Dummkopf," his father muttered, starting to walk away.

"Papa, no! Wait! I…I could show you something else! I…Please come back! Papa!"

"It is okay, Heinz. I did not expect much from you. Goodbye."

Heinz shot up in bed, in a panicked sweat, pulling his knees to his chest with a frown. Why? Why did this keep happening? As if it wasn't bad enough to live through his childhood once, he had to keep reliving it in twisted ways in his dreams.

He knew by now that it was hopeless to try to fix things with his father or mother. It was beyond his help. He'd tried on multiple occasions, and it only led to disaster and more hurt for him.

But…

He couldn't help still longing for their love, their approval…

He longed for any kind of love. He felt so lonely…

His eyes welled up with tears, trying his best to hold in the sobs trying to escape his throat. He needed contact. He wanted—no, needed to talk to someone…

But who? It was…

He squinted at the clock.

2:00 A.M.

He groaned and sleepily grabbed his phone, scrolling through his contacts. He…didn't really have many contacts in his phone. A few associates, but nobody he could really just call in the middle of the night. No friends.

"Well, I'm certainly not calling Charlene. How weird would that be? She'd think I was crazy calling in the middle of the night!" He sighed. "Anyone would think I was crazy…" He leaned back, letting his head hit the headboard of his bed. "Ooh, wait, I could…I could call Vanessa! She likes me! Surely she wouldn't mind me calling her…She, she would understand, right…? Oh, wait, it's a school night. That wouldn't be very considerate of me." He threw his phone to the side, burying his face in his knees as he hugged them.

He was trying his best to hold his tears back, but he supposed he was being louder than he realized because there was soon a knock at the door. His robot, Norm, then appeared. "What do you want, Norm? It, it's the middle of the night!"

"Are you okay, sir?" He walked over to the man's bedside.

"Of course I'm okay! Go, go away, Norm!"

"Did you have a nightmare? You seem upset. Would you like me to read you a story?"

Heinz scowled, waving his hands around. "No, you hunk of metal! Leave me alone!"

"You're the only father I have, sir, and I don't like seeing you sad."

"I'm not your father!" Heinz clenched his fists before breaking down again. "Papa…" he sobbed.

Norm sat down at the foot of the man's bed. "Why don't you talk to me about it, sir? I will listen."

"F-fine…" he sniffed, looking to the robot, his scowl slowly forming into the tiniest smile.

Perhaps he did have one friend. He wasn't found in the contacts of his phone, but he was always there.